James Brown was a painter, sculptor, experimental printmaker, and ceramicist whose career gained wide recognition in the 1980s and ’90s. His biomorphic and primitivist works are largely abstract, but have traces of Modernist-influenced figuration. Many of his series allude to literary and musical works, including the writing of D.H. Lawrence. In 1995, Brown embarked on a series based on Gustav Holst’s orchestral composition The Planets (1914-1916). The series includes over 80 abstract paintings. Other works with more abstract subjects include Ceramic (2002) comprised of wall sculptures that appeared to be suspended in space, and a series of prints that summarize his research about color.